Punakaiki and Hokitika (for Jan. 22)

Westport was a coal port until they closed the mines many years ago. There is quite a coal mining history, so that is what we expected in the Coaltown Museum. But there was a lot more. They had a very good collection of artifacts, well displayed, also representing gold mining, seafaring, beer brewing, medicine, and a few other topics. Very surprising for a town of about 6,000 people. One of the displays was of a coal car that used to bring coal down from the mountain at up to an 80 degree angle. They had an ingenious system of using the gravity of a full car, with a braking system, to pull an empty car back up. Sounds pretty simple, but the logistics of swapping cars in and out and switching them at a level halfway point was pretty complex. It is pretty amazing what they were able to accomplish using the tools of the day.

We got away about 11:30, but made slow progress. Around every corner was a new scenic vista, so we stopped a few times for picture taking. As the driver, you are so focused on the road that you really can’t appreciate the view without stopping. It’s also hard to take pictures while driving. We reached Punakaiki, had lunch, and began the hike at about 1 PM. Punakaiki is a place where limestone cliffs have been eroded to pancake-like spires and where surging seas can create geyser-like blow holes. For the best effect, it has to be high tide with heavy seas. We were there several hours before high tide and the seas were pretty calm, so we didn’t wait to see the blow holes. We took the walk twice though. The morning had been overcast and dark with one little shower. I was disappointed in the light conditions for picture taking. Near the end of our first walk, the skies cleared, so we went back around. It took a little over an hour to do it twice.

We saw a new twist on the one lane bridge today – a one lane bridge shared with a train track. I wonder who has the right of way there?

We decided to stop in Hokitika because they had a “glow worm dell” and the National Kiwi Centre that our guide book said was open until 7 PM. We thought that we could get these two things in this evening and get an early start tomorrow. We stopped at the glow worm dell, but it is outdoors and you can’t see them until dark, so we will have to try that later. We booked into a motel about 4, got ourselves settled and set out for a tour. We got to the Kiwi place at 5:30, only to learn that they now close at 5, so we headed down to the beach for a walk. Like Westport, the beach here is wide, exposed, and littered with driftwood. We observed several shapes where people had constructed things out of the driftwood. Cool? Or lame? My first reaction was “lame.” Until we got closer and inspected some of them. They were the remains of the “Driftwood and Sand” sculpture competition. Many were very well conceived and executed. Very cool!

No Internet tonight, but we saw an ad for a place on our route tomorrow where you can plug in with your own laptop.

Just got back from checking out the glow worms. Thousands of tiny blue lights on a cliff face. Like tiny LEDs. Very interesting. We went at 10 PM when there was just a hint of light left in the sky.